This was a success because 90 years ago, few North Dakotans started with partisan rhetoric and they did not call it socialism or anti-capitalism. They realized their economic woes and got together to solve it.

Eric Hardmeyer: It was created 90 years ago, in 1919, as a populist movement swept the northern plains. Basically it was a very angry movement by a large group of the agrarian sector that was upset by decisions that were being made in the eastern markets, the money markets maybe in Minneapolis, New York, deciding who got credit and how to market their goods. So it swept the northern plains. In North Dakota the movement was called the Nonpartisan League, and they actually took control of the legislature and created what was called an industrial program, which created both the Bank of North Dakota as a financing arm and a state-owned mill and elevator to market and buy the grain from the farmer. And weâre both in existence today doing exactly what we were created for 90 years ago. Only weâve morphed a little bit and found other niches and ways to promote the state of North Dakota.

MJ: What makes your bank unique today?

EH: Our funding model, our deposit model is really what is unique as the engine that drives that bank. And that is we are the depository for all state tax collections and fees. And so we have a captive deposit base, we pay a competitive rate to the state treasurer. And I would bet that that would be one of the most difficult things to wrestle away from the private sectorâthose opportunities to bid on public funds.
But thatâs only one portion of it. We take those funds and then, really what separates us is that we plow those deposits back into the state of North Dakota in the form of loans. We invest back into the state in economic development type of activities. We grow our state through that mechanism.

This was a success because 90 years ago, few North Dakotans started with partisan rhetoric and they did not call it socialism or anti-capitalism. They realized their economic woes and got together to solve it.

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Yes, but to compare the competency of the ND state government to a federal bureaucracy is apples and oranges.